This game hopefully helped the children to remember what the Bible Story was about, but also helped to show them the importance of working together and staying together.
As you can see from this picture, the children often had a hard time staying together and running at the same time. That is a life lesson for everyone. We need to work together and not try to do everything ourselves.
Olana center in this picture furthers the idea that we need to stay together. One person was trying to drag her one way and another person was trying to drag her the other way. That often happens in life as well. We have people trying to drag us every which way. However, we must remember to follow in the footsteps and follow the path of Jesus.
Another game we played was a freeze tag game with clothespins. The clothespins represented the leprosy. Four or five people would have the pins and would go around tagging people by sticking a pin on them. Once you got a pin stuck to you, you had to freeze and wait for Jesus to come heal you. Tim represented Jesus and would go around to each person with a pin on them and say (in Ukrainian of course), “In the name of Jesus, you are healed.” To which he would tell the children that need to respond with thanks (ya ka you). It was a great way of reminding the children that it was Jesus who did the healing and that it is Jesus that heals us today.
The children enjoyed to run. So the final game we played involved the children splitting into two teams and running up to Andrew and me putting pins on us. Then once every pin was somewhere on Andrew and me, the children each came and took a pin off. This game did not relate as much to the story, but hopefully was another way in which the children remembered what we taught them.
Here I am covered with pins. In case you were thinking it, yes (tak) there is one on my nose and yes it did hurt.
If this picture does not make you smile, well then you probably never smile . A smile needs no words.
Lilly rocking the Auburn hat and me rocking the Ukrainian football jersey and Lilly’s glasses. One thing that we were very blessed with was how the children and youth were very accepting of us and we were very accepting of them. It did not seem to matter that we live worlds apart.
Yana (Jana) was visiting from Russia. She was born in Ukraine and spoke many times about how great Ukraine is. I know for one I was scared Ukraine would be cold and depressing. However, it was just the opposite. It was warm and had many people with warm hearts. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to be over here.
Look at Sophia. Her face speaks words about her personality. She was very small, but had a big personality.
After the day camp we went back to the Bible College to eat lunch. Then Debra, Barbara, Tim and I went to a few different shops to buy a few gifts. While we were walking around, we ran into a couple of girls from our day camp and they were happy to see us. It was great that we spent a large amount of our time in the same area. Then Barbara, Bob, and I met up with Sasha, from our ESL class, for a short tour of Ivano-Frankivsk. She was so nice. She called a Cathedral looking church that has been turned into a museum. They said that they closed at 5:00 PM and we were not meeting up with Sasha until that time. Yet, they told Sasha that they would stay for us if we came straight there and we were very glad that they did. The church was beautiful inside (they did not want us taking pictures, which is totally understandable). The lady that told us about all the art and sculptures in the church gave us many interesting stories and facts about the church and Ukraine. One of the neatest things in the church was these sculptures that looked like they were stone, but instead were made out of wood. They were incredible. Below are pictures of three very funny things that happened while Sasha was showing us around.
This chapel was next door to the museum/Church that we had just left. Sasha was talking away to Barbara and me and we turned around to noticed Bob had wandered off. When we turned around we noticed he was walking into this chapel because he heard people singing. The three of us were laughing thinking that these people did not want Bob to interrupt their singing. Yet, we followed Bob into the chapel. It turned out to be a small group of adults having a choir practice. They did not seem bothered by our presence and even said they would sing a couple of songs for us. Then Bob asked if we could sing a song in English for them and they said sure. So, we sang the first verse of Amazing Grace. Even though we thought it was funny for Bob to just walk in, it was a neat experience.
We then went to a small market just beyond where we were. Bob talked to this lady that made quilts and she tried very hard to sell one to him. He asked if she was going to be in the same place the next day, because then he would come back (more on this in the next post). If notice in the background, I was very interested in this whole conversation. I was reading a book we got from the museum that tells all about Ivano-Frankivsk.
The plaza area had a few of these circles that if you stood in the center of them and clapped, it would make a buzzing/whistle type noise. One of our new friends from our ESL class told us about it. A couple of people did not believe it and claimed they could not hear the noise (more on this later too).
A picture of us at an internet café. We saw some interesting things there.
Thought or lesson of the day: I have mentioned similar thoughts a couple of times, but I learned it in a different context today. Your actions really have an impact on children and they will often follow what you are doing even without you asking them. The thing I am referring to is that one of my jobs at the camp was to pick up trash each day during the snack time. The children would spread out to different places around our area of the park to eat their snack so picking up the trash required me to walk around the whole area. Well over the course of my walking a few of the children started helping me going around and pick up trash as well. One girl for example almost every time I turned around she was right behind me with another empty juice box. She went around and picked up at least 8-10 juice boxes. One guy also helped clean up the park area of things that other people visit the park had left (it is crazy to have a park without any trash cans around it). Each time the children brought me their trash I would say either good or thank you in their native tongue, so I am really good at saying those words haha.
With much Joy,
Ben
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